


Just as He (Didn’t) Remember

by gladdecease



Category: Heroes (TV)
Genre: F/M, Future Fic, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2007-04-11
Updated: 2007-04-11
Packaged: 2017-10-15 15:38:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 395
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/162322
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gladdecease/pseuds/gladdecease
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's a painting of Claire. He's in it too, but Zach doesn't remember the moment.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Just as He (Didn’t) Remember

**Author's Note:**

> I wondered what Zach would think of that painting Isaac drew of Zach and Claire. But that really doesn’t make sense within the current time frame, so... future!fic! Claire is possibly in hiding, or with the other heroes at some unnamed location. Zach is left out, similar to when Claire left for New York.

Zach hadn’t been looking for anything in particular when he walked into the gallery. It was one of those things he all but had to attend these days - they were selling paintings by an artist who had been murdered in New York just before it was destroyed, to raise funds to rebuild the city.

He was never forced to help out; he _wanted_ to. People had started to expect it, strangely; after the embarrassing show he had made of passing by the record of deaths and searching the ruins for survivors (someone who had no marks of injury, someone who had run away from home and _left him clueless and alone_ ), people had started to regard him as some kind of hero.

He wanted to laugh. _She_ had been the real hero; he had just been trying to keep up. And then, when it was clear he could never do that, he settled for remembering. Her eyes, her smile, her laugh… knowing that he still knew that, still remembered it… it was enough.

But, after so many years of her being missing (missing, missing, not dead, _never_ dead, just _missing_ ), his memory had begun to fade. It was only natural… but how he had wished it wasn’t.

He had almost given up hope of finding her, or being able to recognize her laugh instantly. Then he walked into this random gallery and saw her face.

 _It looks like I wasn’t the only one with Claire on my mind,_ he thought as tears ran down his face.

One of the assistants approached him. “Is there a problem, Mr…”

“Zach. Just Zach.” He brushed at his eyes halfheartedly. “And I’m fine. This piece just…”

She nodded knowingly. “Yes, Mr. Mendez had a way of painting that brought out the soul of the moment, preferring emotion over precision.” She glanced at something on her clipboard.

“Mr. Mendez painted multiple pictures of that girl, actually. It was a bit of a series for him, for several months. We call it the “cheerleader” set - for obvious reasons, as you can see.” She gestured towards the character in the forefront of the painting. “Would you like to see more?”

Zach’s eyes barely turned from the painting, longingly - almost hungrily - taking in every detail of a scene he could not remember (yet there he was).

“I would love to see the others.”


End file.
